In this case, the city is using the specter of sex trafficking to collect new fees, take more control over local entrepreneurs, and make it much easier to shut down businesses they don't like. But 'sex trafficking' has become such a magic invocation that politicians can use it to pass just about anything, no matter how unrelated to the law's professed purposes.

In saner times, people might point out that this testimony amounts to an emotional ploy to conflate these establishments with horrific violence. Indeed, local lawmakers failed to offer any evidence at all that sex trafficking is an issue at Tampa's bathhouses. Problem: None of the victims who testified said they'd been exploited at a bathhouse.

The purpose of the testimony was to get support for a new city ordinance on bathhouses-a mammoth package of new occupational licensing requirements, record-keeping mandates, limits on hours of operation, and other rules.

Three sex-trafficking victims told their stories in a dramatic Tampa City Council meeting yesterday.